Pyrophobia
by scorpiusrose
Summary: 10 years ago, she witnessed the death of Crabbe in the Room of Requirements through Ron's pensieve. Now, in sixth year, she is partnered with her rival, Scorpius Malfoy, in DADA and witnesses the effects of Incendio. EDITED


**(A/N) My first published Rose/Scorpius fan fic! Hope you like it!**

**(A/N (ii)) I reread this story and fixed up some grammatical mistakes/spelling mistakes and added a little bit at the end as suggested**

**Prompt: Fire**

Her curiosity got the better of her; she dipped her head into the unfamiliar basin. She felt a tug and she was lurched forward.

She landed ungracefully as she stumbled inside a room. There were things everywhere, everything ranging from sofas, to books, to cupboards. The stacks and stacks of items seemed endless; she didn't know where she was.

"Hello?" The little girl asked. Dressed in her pink Hippogriff pyjamas, the seven year old looked around for any sign of a door, or a way out.

Then she saw it.

The flames licked the sides of the walls and almost blinded her sight. The smoke filled the room and suffocated her lungs. She was trapped, in the room where the Things are Hidden. She tried to scream, but no sound could escape her dry throat.

Trapped.

With Fire.

The fire came closer and closer, she was beginning to accept her destiny, she closed her eyes, expecting excruciating pain and burns, but it never came. The black and grey flames roared, surrounding her and trapping her in this confined space. She heard a scream. She turned around and saw a boy, only about the age of seventeen or eighteen, wave around an uncontrollable wand as sparks continue to escape.

"STOP!" The boy yelled, "Please, somebody save me. Goyle! Malfoy! Please, anyone, Potter! Weasley! I beg of you, please help me."

At the sound of her last name, she stood on her tip toes to get a clearer view of him over the flames. Tears escaped his eyes, Rose wanted to help him. No one deserved to die such a horrible death.

"Drop your wand!" She said boldly. She remembered the time when her dad had told her about the four houses of Hogwarts and how it would be such a privilege to be part of the brave house of Gryffindor. From then on, she vowed to herself that she would train herself to be just as bold and just as strong as her father and mother. She wanted- no, needed, to help this poor boy and to prove her bravery if it was the last thing that she does.

The boy took no notice of her as if she wasn't there. Strangely enough, through her sense of panic, Rose had not realised that the heat of the fire had never reached her.

"We have to get out of here," Rose heard someone cry. She snapped her head upwards and saw figures in broomsticks riding past her.

"PLEASE! POTTER! WEASLEY! SAVE ME! PLEASE, DON'T LEAVE ME!" The sound of items burning and breaking drowned the pleads of the young boy. The fire was roaring and the sound of things breaking and snapping filled the room, Rose returned her gaze to the poor boy with the flaming wand.

Where was she? Was she going to die here? In this unknown place? Why was this boy calling out her last name? Who were those people in broomsticks? Who is this boy? Millions of unanswered questions ran through her mind. She wanted to get out, but how?

She heard one last yelp of pain from the boy with the wand and saw him suffocating. By now, the black and grey flames had created a short barrier between the two and she had no way of crossing over to help him. His clothes were partially burnt as he jumped around, trying to extinguish the fire. Nothing happened; it was as if the fire couldn't be destroyed. Rose wanted to close her eyes once more, but couldn't look away, before she knew it, the boy himself caught on fire, and he was perished.

Gone. Just like that.

Rose cried. She didn't know what else to do but cry. _Not long_, she thought, _not long until it's your turn to perish._

She wanted her last words to be meaning, "Daddy, Mummy, Hugo, I love you and I hope you know that," she said childishly, hoping that they would somehow hear her.

xxxxxxxxx

She had been scared of fire ever since. After watching a man burn to death when you were a child does leave one traumatised. Her father, who had woken up in the middle of the night went down to the kitchen, in hope to make himself a cup of hot chocolate, noticed how a silver light was illuminated from his office as he crept down the stairs. Immediately, he went in, only to find his pensieve and his daughter, with her head stuck inside.

He quickly pulled her out and hugged her close. He realised as soon as she started sobbing that she had seen the very things that he had been trying to hide from her. The war. Those memories. Horrible, horrible memories.

That night, they had both crumbled on the floor and she had cried herself to sleep in her father's arms. He explained to her how he had lived through dark times, dark, dark times. He told her about the Room and Requirements and how the boy she saw, Vincent Crabbe, had performed dark magic and lost control over his wand. How Harry, Ron and Hermione could not save him because he was buried deep in the rubbles of the room and it was far too dangerous. How they had managed to save the other two, Malfoy and Goyle.

She lost many nights of sleep over that memory; she couldn't get it out of her head. She had nightmares of scenes playing over and over again, each time, ending with the boy screaming, "Why didn't YOU save me?" and Rose breaking out in sweat and tears

By the time she got to Hogwarts, the nightmares got better, became less frequent. She was able to control herself, through experience, and calm herself down. She would muffle her sobs and eventually learned a spell from her mother to stop the other Gryffindor girls from hearing her.

She was coping.

Just barely.

xxxxxxxxxx

Rose woke up early that morning, eager to start her first day as a sixth year student here in Hogwarts. She quickly took a shower and dried her hair with a simple spell, humming to herself as she pulled on her school attire.

"Good morning," she said cheerfully to her cousin Dominique, who was too in sixth year.

"Uh," Dom grunted. She was definitely not a morning person.

"Come on! You're going to miss breakfast!" All of Rose's cousins somehow inherited the Weasley genes of having a huge appetite. Hearing upon the sound of breakfast, Dom sprang up and quickly got ready. With her part-veela genes, it was very easy for her to look fantastic, even in the morning.

The two girls walked into the Great Hall and turned towards to Gryffindor Table. Rose glanced over the Slytherin side and spotted her other cousin, Albus and quickly waved at him.

She hurriedly slipped into the seat beside Dom and started attacking the pieces of bacon. Within minutes, her other cousins, Lily, James, Molly, Roxanne and Fred all slumped down somewhere near her and the group ate together, as always, with occasional chatters amongst themselves.

Professor Longbottom was walking along the Gryffindor table and started handing out their timetables.

"Here you go Rose, I look forward to seeing you in Herbology later today," Neville said with a warm smile, "And you too, Dominique." He walked off and started handing out timetables to the rest of the Gryffindor Weasley-Potters.

"Wah oo yoo av fir fin?" James asked, his mouth packed with bits of everything.

Rose, completely used to him talking whilst eating, understood perfectly, "Well, Dom and I have DADA first thing with the Slytherins, what about you?"

"Potions, with Ravenclaws" James and Fred replied.

"Transfig, with Slytherins" Lily said.

"Free," Roxanne and Molly both said.

The others groaned and said, "Lucky".

Not long after, the bell rang and students started piling out of the Great Hall.

"Come on, Dom, let's hurry up," Rose said, grabbing Dom by the arm and dragging her towards the Defence classroom.

They entered and spotted the mess of black hair that belonged to no doubt Albus Potter, sitting with his best friend, Scorpius Malfoy. Rose took a seat on Albus' left and Dom on Rose's left.

"Good morning," Teddy said, he was the temporary DADA teacher for this year, as they couldn't find a quick enough replacement for the late Professor Mason, who had unfortunately passed away during the holidays. Teddy was a junior auror, but his Godfather had suggested that he filled in for the post at Hogwarts just for this year.

"Morning, Teddy," Rose, Dom and Albus said.

"Professor Lupin to you, my dear cousins. Anyway, as you all know, Professor Mason, unfortunately passed away this summer and I am here to substitute until Professor McGonagall can find a suitable replacement. Right, so let's get started, shall we? Today, we're going to have a little fieldtrip."

The class lit up with excitement, "Yes!" Many of the Slytherins cried out.

"All right, so leave your bags here and you will only need your wands. Follow me," Teddy led the students out of the castle and stopped at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"Okay, so let me explain what you're going to do. We will be learning about the spell, 'Incendio', can anyone tell me what it's used for?"

Rose's hand shot up in an instant, "It sets things on f-fire," her voice quavered as she realised what they were doing this lesson.

"Wonderful. Five points to Gryffindor. All right, so it is important to pronounce the incantation correctly or it could go very wrong. Also, remember the wrist motion, like this," he demonstrated the movement with his own wand, "So I'm going to pair you up into partners and one of you will cast the 'Incendio' spell, then the other will extinguish it with 'Aguamenti', are we clear?"

The class nodded and Teddy continued, "Okay, let's see," he took out a piece of parchment, "Ms. Weasley, that's you, Dom, and Mr. McCoy, Mr. Potter and Ms. Corner, Mr. Jordan and Ms. Zabini, Ms. Finnigan and Mr. Thomas, Ms. Walkers and Mr. Davies and lastly, Ms. Other Weasley and Mr. Malfoy. Off you go, find a space and get cracking."

Rose scowled and glared at Teddy, who was too busy surveilling another group. She turned around and caught Malfoy's eye. He quickly winked at her and walked over, "So, I guess it's you and me, Weasley."

"Sometimes your intelligence astounds me. Let's just get started, Malfoy," she began to walk towards an empty area, twirling her wand nervously in her hand.

"Come on Weasley, get rid of that scowl on your pretty face," Scorpius teased.

Rose rolled her eyes; she and Scorpius could fill a whole book of sarcastic comments and retorts towards each other. However, since last year, Malfoy would occasionally tease her and taunt her by asking her out on dates or spewing some cheesy pickup lines. He knew they really got under her skin.

"Should I go first, or should you?"

"Never have I thought that I would live to see the day when Rose Weasley is being considerate," he smirked.

"Just choose, prat," Rose snarled.

"You know I like it when you get all feisty," Scorpius said, clearly amused, "I'll go first, and you can extinguish it."

"Fine then, let's see what you've got," Rose said confidently, she urged herself to remain strong and let her bravado take over, she couldn't crumble. Not again.

"INCENDIO!" Scorpius shouted, aiming at the patch the grass in front of them, which immediately combusted. The red and orange flames danced around and contrasted the green grass. It grew larger and larger as it began to burn the dry wood and twigs lying around.

"Well, what are you doing standing there, Weasley? Extinguish it," Scorpius said.

Rose, shaking, held up her wand and stuttered, "A-Agua-Aguamenti..." her voice trailed off and nothing happened. She froze on the spot, the memory replaying inside her mind and she could momentarily hear the screams of that young boy.

The fire burned closer and closer to her but she found herself glued to the spot. It was only half a meter in front of her, burning bright. Unlike all the other times, she could feel the heat radiating from the fire. She closed her eyes; ready to face the flames, but instead felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her middle and pulled her backwards. She felt her back hit the trunk of a tree a metre away from the fire.

"What the fuck was that, Weasley? Are you mental? Or masochistic? 'Cause if you are, then you're more than welcome in my bed, but don't just stand there in front of the bloody fire" Scorpius yelled, gripping her wrist tightly, then yelling "Aguamenti" at the fire. The flames immediately died down.

Rose didn't- couldn't say anything, her body convulsed as her limps gave in and she dropped to the floor, pulling Scorpius with her. He let go of her as she buried her head between her knees, obviously overwhelmed with tears. He quickly shifted himself so that he sat next to her and put his arm around her shoulder in attempt to comfort the crying girl.

He wanted to whisper sweet nothings in her ears and assure her that she would be all right, but he couldn't express himself. He was never good with emotions, Malfoys were never good with emotions, when things got intense, they would run, but he somehow he couldn't leave her. Something inside him told him to stay, told him that she needed him.

He rubbed her back; something that he assumed would help calm her down. She responded by curling her body around him and resting her head against his chest. He could feel her tears seeping through his shirt and onto his skin. He withheld a sigh; he couldn't say that this was uncomfortable, because it wasn't at all. He realised just how much he loved her and it scared him.

Since they were young, they fought like a married couple, shouting insults at each other, trying to best each other at everything. Whilst she remained top of the class, he excelled her in Quidditch. They were both prefects, both expected to become Head Boy or Head Girl next year.

He remembered one day in fifth year when they got into a particularly huge argument, she had ignored him for weeks. No insults, no intense glare, no teases, not even the borderline flirting. He couldn't stop thinking about her, every time she walked past, he tried and tried to apologise. But he never apologised for anything, and this sudden urge to give in to his arch nemesis stunned him.

After much thinking, and many questions from Al, he realised that he couldn't function properly without interacting with her. He could barely eat, sleep or talk, his grades started to slip as he stared out in space every lesson. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore; he marched up to her and started talking to her as if nothing happened. He didn't apologise, he didn't want to seem weak, he was a Malfoy and Malfoys don't apologise.

When they had returned to normal, he gave a sigh of relief and day by day, he came to a conclusion that Rose Weasley was a major part of his life, whether he liked it or not. As time passed, he began to notice her more, he noticed her bright blue eyes, her vibrant red hair that was darker than all her other cousins, her adorable freckles that splattered around her face. She was truly beautiful, she was unique, one and only.

He didn't know what to do with these feelings, so he started to compliment her, sometimes even ask her out. But the rivalry and the tension remained and she never took him seriously, but how he wished that she would know that he meant every word, even if it came out wrong every time.

Rose looked up at him, slightly calmer from her previous sobs, "Sorry, I got you shirt all wet," she mumbled quietly.

Scorpius shook his head, "It's fine, Wea-Rose," he gave her a genuine smile, or at least he hoped that it looked genuine.

"Thanks for saving me just now, I would have gotten burnt."

"I wouldn't just leave you there, it was nothing. Seriously, what happened?"

Rose paused for a second, pondering whether or not to tell Scorpius Malfoy her greatest fear, but she felt like she owed him an explanation after saving her life, "When I was younger, my mum and dad protected me from their experiences in war. They told me the general events, how they went on a Horcrux hunt and defeated Voldemort, but never details.

I was seven when I decided that I wanted to know more. I woke up in the middle of the night and took out my dad's pensieve and took out a random memory and poured it in. I didn't know exactly how it worked, so I just dipped my head in and the next second, I was in a room. I didn't know back then, but I was in the Room of Requirements and at the time, your father, his two friends, my parents and Uncle Harry were in there.

One of the boys, Crabbe, set the room on fire. He had casted a Fiendfyre that cannot be extinguished by water. I watched him, I stood there, and I watched him lose control of his wand, I stood there while he screamed for help. I wanted to help him, but the fire was everywhere. I watched him set on fire and I watched him die. I was seven, but the memory never faded.

When my dad pulled me out of the pensieve, it was too late. I was traumatised. I have nightmares all the time, and every time Crabbe would ask me why I didn't save him and I just can't get it out of my head."

Rose's face was contorted to prevent more tears from escaping.

"I didn't know," Scorpius said.

"Of course you didn't," Rose replied, "No one but my parents do, well I suppose now you do too. Don't feel sorry for me, it was my fault. They say curiosity kills the cat. Well, I can't help but agree with that one. I might not be dead, but for a while after the incident, I felt as though a part of me did." She paused, "Sorry for burdening you with these things, you must be really bored now." Rose detached herself from him but his grip around her shoulder tightened as he pulled her to his side.

"Don't apologise, nobody's perfect. Even the bravest person is scared of something, it makes you human, Rose," Scorpius said soothingly, "and sometimes, sharing your fears can help you overcome them. As long as you have someone who's there every step of the way, you can pull it off. Come on, Weasley, you're the bravest person I know. I know that one day you'll be able to practice that spell without even flinching. You know what, I'm going to make sure of it."

"Never have I thought that I would live to see the day when Scorpius Malfoy is being considerate," she chuckled as she mimicked his previous speech.

"Touché," he said, laughing along. What a strange sight this was, two rivals sitting side by side under a tree laughing as if they were best friends.

"Glad to see you smile again, Rose," Scorpius said, "You're really beautiful when you smile." If he wasn't blushing before, he certainly was now.

"Thank you," Rose said.

"I mean it. Since we're getting along so well, I want to say I'm sorry."

"You're what?"

"I am sor-ry," Scorpius said slowly, smiling, "I think it's time we both grow up a little, since you're facing your fears, it's time I face mine."

"Your fears? The brave, perfect Scorpius Malfoy is scared of something?" Rose teased.

"Perfect? So you think I'm perfect?" Scorpius asked, laughing as Rose's cheeks flushed to the colour of her hair, "but yah, I guess I just have this thing with saying sorry."

"What do you mean?"

"I never truly apologise for anything. Never. I can count with one hand the number of times I said, 'Sorry', but even then, I never meant it. They were just attempts to get people off my backside."

"But you just apologised to me, did that mean nothing too?" Rose asked, her voice slightly hurt.

"I told you, I'm facing my fear. Starting with you. I am sorry for everything, for all the insults that I've thrown at you, you're not stupid, you're not ugly, and you're not a prude. Okay, maybe you are a prude, but you are definitely the cleverest and most beautiful witch I have ever known."

"Wow, so you're admitting that I am cleverer than you? That's definitely a first."

"Haha Rose, I said 'witch', so I don't apply in that category," Scorpius retorted.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Malfoy," Rose said.

"You have no idea what helps me sleep at night," Scorpius joked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Rose laughed, "You just have to turn everything into something sexual, don't you?"

"Admit it, you love it."

"No comment there."

A comfortable silence passed between the two before Rose said, "I forgive you, but on one condition."

"What? Don't tell me to admit to the rest of the school that you're the best girl I've ever met, 'cause I'm sorry, but not that sorry." Scorpius joked.

"Hey, that's actually a fantastic idea, I might consider that, but no. I want you to forgive me."

"What?"

"I'm sorry too, I'm sorry for calling you a prat, even though you do deserve it at times, I'm sorry for jinxing you in the hallways, I'm sorry for getting you in detention as often as I can."

"All's fair in love and war."

"What makes you think there's love in our relationship?"

"Oh please, Weasley, how can you resist this Malfoy charm," he winked at her.

"You know what, I think you're getting somewhere with this."

"Wha-," Scorpius' eyes widened, but he couldn't finish the rest of his sentence as Rose reached up and pulled his face down until their lips met.

Their kiss was soft and gentle at first but passion was elicited as their lips moved in sync and they both tilted their heads the opposite way to gain better access. Rose unconsciously parted her lips and their kiss deepened. The two would never admit it, but they both finally understood what people meant by seeing fireworks. All their sexual tension bottled up for the last five years was poured into the kiss. They soon pulled apart, reluctantly, but breathing became quite a problem.

"I forgive you," Scorpius said, "But on one condition."

"What's that?" Rose asked, worried.

"Rose Weasley, will you go out with me?"

Rose responded enthusiastically by closing the gap between them once more.

"So I take that as a yes?"

"And I thought you were supposedly smart"

"Oh shush," Scorpius said, kissing her once more.

xxxxx

"HEY! ROSE? SCORPIUS? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

They broke apart after Merlin-knows-how-long and faced a very amused-looking Teddy, alongside with the rest of the class, who were struggling, but failing not to laugh.

"We were just-," Rose began

"I knew this would happen" Teddy said, "besides, you just made a fantastic story for me to tell Uncle Ron in the Burrow this Christmas"

"Not if I tell him first," Al said.

**(A/N) Well, that was long for my standards! Anyway, PLEASE REVIEW BEFORE YOU FAVOURITE! Even if it's just one word!**

**If you ship Romione, check out my other stories too!**


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